Results tagged “hilary hahn” from Slipped disc

Coming up tonight on BBC Radio 3, and streamed throughout the coming week on site, is the Lebrecht Interview with one of the most self-possessed artists I have ever encountered.

Hilary Hahn, last year's Grammy winner for the Schoenberg concerto that hardly anyone else dares to play, puts neither a note nor a hair out of place. We eyeballed for an hour in a studio in Liverpool, the shutters slamming down whenever the conversation touched on private life.

I don't pretend to have got the measure of Hilary - she's too smart for that - but you may form a bit more of an impression of what she's about from listening to her duck and weave under a hail of questions.

Halfway through a Lebrecht Interview for the upcoming BBC Radio 3 series, Hilary Hahn took control and demanded: 'But what about you? I want to know what you think musicians should be doing in this situation. You're supposed to be the expert. Where's it all going?'

It was an astute interjection, cleverly deflecting my line of questioning from areas where the hard-headed violinist did not want to go and putting the pressure on the interviewer to come up with an instant panacea. Did I pass the test? You'll have to hear the programme, which goes out some time in July or August. But I liked Hilary all the more for her initiative and the moment loosened her up for the rest of the conversation as much as it did me. 

She insisted afterwards that we had photos taken making funny faces to belie my description of her as the most serious violinist of her generation. In the course of time, you'll see the pictures on the BBC website. Tomorrow night, Hilary will be playing Jennifer Hidgon's concerto in Liverpool with Vasily Petrenko and recording it for Deutsche Grammophon the following day.